Question: There are two forces in creation: the plus and minus, the desire to receive and desire to bestow, the male force and the female force. Perhaps the connection between the male and the female forces is missing in order to discover the one force that is called “One?” If that is true, then how can we connect?

Answer: Only by including the Creator, there is no other way! Only He can create harmony between the plus and the minus. It says “a man and a woman, Shechina (Divinity) is between them.” A man and a woman, plus and minus, these two opposite forces will never be able to connect without the revelation of the Creator.

In nature there must always be a resistance between the plus and the minus in which the mutual energy between them becomes prominent, and it’s the Creator who plays that role. First He reveals Himself in the form of the ego, the resistance between the plus and the minus, then He connects everything into one system, and then on top of this resistance, His revelation becomes disclosed and we begin to feel Him.

We can’t actually feel Him. He is felt in our desires, in our vessels, in the resistance that we create between the plus and the minus.

Suppose that this is our resistor, plus or minus, our ego (Ego). If there is a “current” flowing through it, which means that we are connecting despite the ego, then on top of the resistor (R) we begin to reveal the Creator.

The Creator is opposite from our ego, since He created the darkness from the Light. So it’s on top of this “instrument” that we discover the Creator. This “instrument” is our Masach (screen).
[103808]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 3

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” p. 29: For if we didn’t have this damaged will to receive within us, we could not correct it at all, for nobody can correct something that isn’t in him. And therefore that amount of will to receive that is embedded in the body from its birth into the air of the world is not enough. Rather, it is further compelled to be a vehicle for unclean Klipot for no less than 13 years.

It follows that even if I possess a great will to receive, this is still not enough. From the start the Creator says to us, “Come to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart.” He will inundate you with blows, so you will want to flee from him. It’s impossible to take me out of the evil inclination until it has reached a level where I can no longer endure it. But first it’s necessary to become completely aware of this evil.

In our world, we educate children to be careful, “Don’t go there, don’t do this…” But in the spiritual world, there is nothing like this. There it’s the opposite; they send me to “criminals” and “thieves,” “alcoholics” and “drug addicts,” into the arms of Haman, Balaam, Balak, Esau, and so forth. Otherwise, how can I correct these characteristics? In fact, these are uncorrected parts of my soul. Therefore, I must own them, feel them as mine, recognize the evil hidden within them, and be released from them, to rise above them.

Question: Does it follow that I must be evil in order to advance spiritually?

Answer: How should I answer you? Yes. It’s possible to correct only what is within you. And in spite of it all, this doesn’t say that I must just become evil. It’s one thing if, like a terrorist, I want to kill someone. It’s another thing if I want to love, and at the same time I discover within me a readiness to kill. These are two absolutely different approaches. And the difference here is that I discover the evil in opposition to it, I see that in myself I am evil, but I don’t kill someone who seems evil to me.

“13 years” among the unclean Klipot is not time according to the calendar, rather this is a level, and the stage is very high. I aspire to love, to bestow, so I discover my evil inclination. This is the condition; otherwise, I wouldn’t advance at all on my spiritual way towards correction, towards the Creator.

I want to be close to Him, to embrace Him, to kiss Him, to give Him pleasure according to the principle: “Don’t do to your friend what is hateful to you,” and love the other as thyself. And likewise, for 13 years, I discover the opposite of bestowal within me. In other words, I discover within myself characteristics, desires, and inclinations, which I didn’t even know existed because they are spiritual and come from the four impure worlds of ABYA. They dwell above the “beastly” comprehension of our world, and therefore, this is already an ascent.

Here the principle: “One against the other” acts. Aspiring to the good, I discover the evil, again and again. And so it goes for some time!

If I don’t maintain the position and stop, everything disappears. And if I don’t want to stop, then I turn to a group, to studies, to the Creator, resorting to all the means that will help me to hold on to the way, to tilt it favorably.

And only then are the “malicious” and “erroneous” things discovered in me, defects that seemed not to exist before then. I never felt what the 613 broken desires were and now they are apparent. If I hadn’t advanced, I would have remained on a level that in a spiritual sense is neither good nor bad. Conversely, if a person advances properly, he becomes worse.

But he works on himself; he understands what is happening with him; he is found in an inner struggle; he helps others, and they help him. It’s as if he “crushes” his ego with millstones, chews and grinds it, so that it will be possible to “swallow,” to “digest” it. During these difficult times we must help and support each other.

Imagine a car show, where the new car sparkles and glimmers, all shiny, clean, and beautiful—a real pleasure. And now look at a car repair shop: the stench, the garbage, the mess….It all depends on where and what they sell to you.

So at this stage, we do most of the “dirty work.” To correct the Human in me: What can be worse? And on the other hand, what can be higher?
[103435]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: The world is portrayed to us as it is now through our senses. But as we advance spiritually, it gradually dissolves. How does this happen?

Answer: It’s very simple. To date many scientific articles have been written on this subject.

We feel everything within us. The upper Light constructs these feelings in us. The physical or spiritual waves (it makes no difference what they are called since they all have the same nature) perform certain actions upon us, and we sense them. It follows that everything that we feel depends upon our Kelim (vessels), our senses.

If our senses are on the most minimal level, in them we feel different ranges, objects, and events, which we call our world. But if the senses are expanded, instead of these volumes we begin to feel additional ranges that engulf the present ones. Ultimately everything dissolves, everything disappears into the waves.

Baal HaSulam presents a very simple example. If we cool water, it transforms into ice, which is to say that from a liquid state it passes to a solid state. If we heat water, it evaporates; it transforms into vapor, into a mist. But this is the same entity that was once in a liquid or solid state and now has transformed into a gaseous state. That is, everything changes relative to us.

If we had other senses, then, for example, we might feel the air as if it were concrete, like an insurmountable obstacle. It follows that it is our senses that portray the world as it is for us.

Read what scientists have written about the perception of reality. After Einstein there was Everett and other great physicists who have written that everything is perceived relative to the observer, and this has been proven experimentally.

Therefore, if our senses change, even matter becomes something else. It is only a wave of light. Whereas we need to be involved with the aspiration for the Creator, for this force, since its discovery is what makes all the changes in us.
[103811]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 3

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Question: What does it mean to ask for connection with the Creator when in a difficult state, instead of trying to overcome the difficult state on one’s own?

Answer: Wisdom comes only with experience. We need to feel darkness many times, and then light, and again darkness and light. That is, we need to go through many unpleasant and pleasant sensations where I feel bad or good for all sorts of spiritual and material reasons, and I can do nothing about it.

Thousands of these experiences should change in me until I begin to realize that my perception depends upon my assessment, on the importance that I attach to the spiritual properties of connection, love, and my relationship to the others. I already start to guess what is hidden in this darkness and to feel it. I don’t just feel good or bad, but good and bad because of my relation to the group, because I don’t consider it important or don’t treat friends well.

There are many steps on this path, many small stages, not yet spiritual, but psychological barriers that must be overcome. And then comes the understanding that waking up out of the darkness, I start thinking about the screen, about the time when I can be above these feelings.

We have to go through the good and bad feelings, through day and night, until the end of correction. Although everyone goes through this in his own way, in the end, I begin to feel the need to rise above these feelings. I no longer want to depend on them and be their slave, but I want to be protected against them with a shield.

Let various internal impressions arise in me, but they should not affect my attitude toward the friends, toward the spiritual path, toward the importance of the goal and the Creator. I want to be independent in that from my egoistic desire and its sorrows. This requirement is being born in me: I want to be above the suffering of egoism, similar to the behavior of a true man in this world who bravely stands his ground, and nothing can shake him, no outside influence.

From this moment, I have a direct connection with the Creator because I begin to demand from Him. So far, I have asked for only good feelings, nice states, sweet fulfillment, that is, I demanded for my egoism. Now, I demand to raise me above my egoistic desire, and this the correct requirement for the Creator. I want to relate to the Master equally well, in the same direction, while remaining above emotions, above the sorrows of my ego. This is called the “anti-egoistic screen” (Masach).

Of course, these screens have a number of levels and features, but the work with the Light starts from this first screen. I want to restrict my desire to enjoy. And naturally, I feel everything that happens in it and the worry in myself. But all these emotions, cooking in my stomach, do not affect my vision, heart, and mind. There is a partition (Parsa) between them, which I feel as a diaphragm inside my body. Under this partition, in the “stomach” something is cooked and happens, but I want to identify myself with what is above this diaphragm: with the lungs, heart and brain.
[103829]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/13

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Question: What is the meaning of the phrase, “Everything that has to be collected is as if it is already collected”?

Answer: This says that everything lies in front of you from the start. All the things that you are about to discover already exist. When a person is born, he gradually discovers new things for himself, and it seems to him that they haven’t existed before. This is how it feels. But actually, everything already exists; we only need to prepare our Kelim (desires), and the corresponding limits of the universe will be immediately revealed in them.

In general, for the entire reality lying in front of us it’s necessary only to add the intention to bestow, the Light of Hassadim, and to that degree we discover the perfect reality. We lack only this.

And therefore I don’t intend to correct the present corrupted reality. I intend to add the attribute of faith, the attribute of bestowal, to my relationship to everything. This is correction—faith above reason.

Accordingly, I don’t need to correct myself from within, I simply need to exit myself to the outside and connect with what is there. Everything is already in front of you, the problem is that you are not there, outside of yourself. It’s necessary to carry out this action, going outside of yourself, and then this reality will become yours. Today, you aren’t ready yet to reveal it, but it exists. You only need to “put on your glasses” in order to see it.

We build the spiritual Kli above the will to receive, above impurity. “Pharaoh” does not disappear anywhere, the will to receive remains, and moreover, it remains in its brutal form, and at the end the “stony heart” is added to it. But we need to rise above it, to go over it.

I protect the impurity (Klipa) that covers my will to receive; similarly, the peel protects the fruit until ripens fully. Otherwise, the fruit will rot, and I will not attain my completed correction. I construct my entire relationship to reality while the peel protects my will to receive: “Don’t just disappear for me. My hatred, jealousy, cruelty, laziness, all these things remain, I need you.” It’s as if I wrap my egoistic characteristics in some package, and I exit from them to the outside. And on the contrary, if they disappeared, I would be left with nothing, and I would have nothing upon which to build myself.

Question: So how does a person go outside of himself?

Answer: For this it’s necessary to reach total helplessness. Then a kind of hole in the heart will open for you, in which you feel that you can go outside—and you will ask for this. But in the meantime you haven’t reached true prayer, you haven’t been “pushed” enough to find the Creator.

Question: How does a person reach true prayer in order to get help?

Answer: This happens only after he loses hope completely, but he still stands on the path. It’s necessary to reach a state of recognition of evil on one hand, the greatness of the goal on the other, and to maintain this gap.

First, I feel bad because I am in the egoistic state. This state is an unbearable evil for me. But the problem is not that it’s bad for me. I have to cancel my “self” and want this to be bad for me because I am not ready to bestow to the Creator. Thus, the evil manifests opposite the love of the Creator. And second, I recognize the greatness of the goal, which for me is goodness.

When I hold these two extremes, I reach the true prayer, a request for correction.

The goal is so great in my eyes that I can’t abandon it. And all the time my concern is that the greatness will only grow more. Ultimately, I hold onto two extremes: the greatness of the goal and the evil of my present state.

There must be pressure here from the group that gives me awareness that the greatness of the goal is namely to bring contentment to the Creator. And then I begin to think of how to flee from my present bad state, which is bad specifically because I am far from the goal.

These are the conditions that need to form within me. For this I have everything: the group, the Creator, the sources…. But the awareness of the importance of the goal is the key to everything (1), it is prior to all the other conditions. I need to be focused on the goal, and within all states to look only at it, to adhere only to it. And then, as a result, I truly need a group, a teacher, the studies, and dissemination.

After all, “the end of an action is in its initial thought.” The goal obligates me to everything. By aspiring to the goal, I understand that I can’t manage without the environment because I will reach the goal specifically among the friends. I know that I can’t do without the teacher because he holds me together with the group on the path and brings the Light that fills us. I understand that I can’t do without books because with their help I learn the spiritual system and arouse myself. When I study, it’s as if I am in that system, and I summon from there the Light that Reforms. And finally, I realize that I can’t manage without dissemination since the group is a small part of the collective vessel of humanity which I also need to be concerned about.

Everything derives from realizing the importance of the goal. I interpret to myself the final state in which I, the group, and the teacher are joined with all humanity such that the entire spiritual system comes to life among us. Its Lights will fill and tie us with one another into a single Malchut of the world of Infinity. And in it, we will reveal the One who has formed it, the Root that has produced the four phases of the Direct Light. And this is the Creator.
[102673]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 

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Question: Essentially, what can we do to specifically help the European groups unite?

Answer: To help with the unification of the European groups we need to be united with them: to connect with them, to push them, to help them, and to participate together with them in their unification. We’re not to stand on the side and watch: “What is happening there in Europe?” but rather to participate in this effort to unify. We need to be aware of what’s going on in all the European groups, to live with them.

We are not just creating a European group at this convention; we are creating the general world group. We need to feel that all of us are one body. Otherwise, we can’t advance. We’ll be in the same state all the time, dispersing and gathering again somewhat, and this will continue for years. We don’t have time for this. We need to unite and work together so much that we’ll see and feel each other as we do now in this convention.

We require one dissemination center for integral education and one management for the entire European group. The center of the world group is found with us. And then we’ll begin to consolidate them all into one united group.
[103678]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 3

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In all of creation, from the world of Infinity and all the upper worlds, Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya, and all the Partzufim and Sefirot until this world, which is the last and the lowest one and includes the whole universe, the still, vegetative, and animate nature, and people on earth, only man has free will. And of all the people it’s only those in whom the question of “what is the meaning of this life?” awakens.

If a person suddenly feels a need to know what he lives for, it means that together with this question the chance to correct his life and to fill it with meaning has appeared. The question itself indicates that there is a certain connection to the source of life. This means that he has a chance to correct his relationship with the source. Today this question awakens in many people, and so we see that depression is widespread.

If we could determine what the lack of communication between us is, what the failure in connection is, we could correct ourselves. We could incorporate the bad system and the good system in us, and we could see which connection is broken and which is intact. But we can’t do that because man was created only with the evil force. I don’t feel anything at all other than the desire to enjoy. I don’t understand anything and can’t think about anything else. This is my inner program.

Everything I look at, everything I see and feel, everything I relate to, all my conscious and subconscious behavior, every day of my life is focused only on one question: “How can I enjoy on the account of every moment and every opportunity.” This is how man is built, and he can’t break this circle.

If I want to do something good for someone else, the reason is my special relations with that person because of which I feel close to him. My good feeling depends on his good feeling. Not only man but also all of the still, vegetative, and animate nature operates according to this principle. We can see this principle everywhere: from the tiniest elementary particles and the waves to gigantic objects and whole galaxies. There is only one desire in everything—to grasp what is good for me and to reject what is harmful.

The egoistic desire to enjoy on the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels of nature operates only in this way. But on the speaking level we also receive a special freedom of choice. Man develops from the animate level, from the monkey, and at a certain point he begins to ask: “What am I living for, what is the meaning of life, what is the source of life, does it have a purpose?”

Throughout his evolution, as a result of blows and everything he has been through, man gradually begins to see the general picture. Then the question about the meaning of life forces him to clarify his desire, he has to understand why he lives. Even if his life is fine, the question whether it has a goal and what he can achieve in this life rises.

Some turn to religion and it gives a person a certain hope since it promises that things will be better after his death. But this is not a solution since by that a person doesn’t actually attain the answer to his question. He only calms himself by other people’s stories.

The wisdom of Kabbalah gives a person a real chance to see reality beyond the boundaries of physical death. It says: “You will see your world in your lifetime.” This means that by changing his attitude to reality, a person begins to see the opposite reality that is outside of him. He exits himself to the external world, as if identifying himself with the external world, and thus leaves his body, the animate level, and acquires new senses and new attributes called the human attributes.

A person identifies with and connects to all of nature that is outside of him. Thus he acquires an out-of-body existence, the spiritual life. We have to do it here, in this world, in this life, and then we will transcend to the next reality. After all, we are on the animate level of reality now. In our world there are the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, and we belong to the animate level but are more developed than other animals.

We have to move on to the human level, the level of Adam, meaning “similar” (Domeh in Hebrew) to the upper force, the force of love and bestowal. When a person exits himself, he begins to see and feel this different reality. He begins to experience life outside the body, like in a collective matrix existing above matter.

Specifically this kind of existence is called the human level. We attain it by drawing the force of bestowal that exists in nature, adding it to the force of receiving, the force of the ego that we have, and then starting to correct it by changing it to bestowal. Thus we reach the spiritual level.

Today we are in the transition from one level to the other and in the near future we will see how the whole world will have to move on to the next phase of our evolution.
[103360]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: The people of Israel were afraid to leap into the Red Sea (Yam Suf – Final Sea) until Nachshon decided to do this. It seems that it was not easy to do.

Answer: This truly wasn’t easy. We see that difficulties appear in all stages of the spiritual process. Always there are those who were ready to turn back. Our ego is so multi-layered that it is not immediately possible to abandon it, to go away from it, or at least to establish that it is bad.

It is difficult for a person to nullify himself before others. If I don’t act first, this says that I would prefer for someone else to do it. Would this be a desire for love and unity? It is true that at that moment the matter was still not clear. And we see that after that the “golden calf” and many other problems were to appear.

Question: What does “Nachshon’s leap” represent?

Answer: In a person there is a characteristic that represents proceeding with faith above reason: “My death is better for me than my life.” So, the person leaps into the sea, what will be will be. Certainly this is not talking about our present state. The action that is called “Nachshon’s leap” requires preparation.

It is required in order to pass to the next stage, but are we prepared to carry it out? In the meantime, we are far from realizing it, even though this moment rapidly approaches. There is no doubt that we are found in the stages of redemption. In the connection of hearts is the idea of peace and wholeness; in this is our salvation, this needs to come as an alternative to the current situation in Egypt. Therefore all of our work, learning, and dissemination are directed towards connection and unity. Only with the help of connection and a good mutual relationship can we be saved.
[103820]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: What is the meaning of the expression “…and the sons of Israel cried out from the work?”

Answer: It means that we raise our hands and cry: “Help us! We are unable to leave Pharaoh, to escape our egoism for a new life.” Why not? What is the purpose of this entire game? Its purpose is to reveal the upper force! If we could exit Egypt ourselves, we wouldn’t have any problems. However, in this case we wouldn’t reveal the upper force, the force of bestowal and love. It has to fulfill us, reveal itself to us, and let us feel itself. During the escape from Egypt it’s first revealed as something that beckons us: as a cloud or a fire pillar. But then we reveal it practically.
[103734]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Exit from Egypt” 3/4/13

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Question: If the Light influences a person according to the root of his soul, where is my participation in this process and how do I determine its pace?

Answer: The Light that Reforms illuminates according to the state of the general system in which we are all integrally connected. We are all mutually incorporated in one another, and so I can’t be disconnected from my generation, from time, place, and the general state. My state depends on others and their state depends upon me.

Besides, I can also advance individually, but my individual advancement is being incorporated in everyone. This means that I can’t think only about myself. It’s impossible in the framework of this system, and by that I will not help myself. If I pray only for myself, I cause myself harm, no matter how good my prayer may be. If it doesn’t go through the group, it causes my soul harm.

So we should always remember that this is a general system in which we are all connected, all tied to and dependent on each other. Our work is namely to reveal this system.

My individual effort is focused on the revelation of the general. I don’t reveal the place I am in, I reveal where the others are, the society. I don’t discover myself, but rather the system in which my “self” disappears.

I on the next level am the one who feels his “self” less and who feels the society more. On a higher level there is a lesser feeling of my “self” and a greater feeling of the society.

So how can I pray for myself? In the next state, on the next level, it will not be me anymore! The society on the next level is “me.” The current “self” disappears in the general system, and the system becomes me. This is actually what I feel and perceive as myself. I see it as my soul.

There is the point of my egoistic “self,” and from it there are circles that spread as each time the circle and the society get bigger: society 1, society 2, and society 3. If I annul myself to some extent, I perceive the first one. Then I annul myself a bit more, and I perceive the second one; I continue to annul myself and I perceive the third one. These phases are called Ibur (gestation), Yenika (suckling), and Mochin (mind).

So who am I? I am what I identify with. If I am incorporated in the first society, then this will be my “self”; if I am incorporated in the second society, then this society will be me; and if I am incorporated in the third society, all this will be me. My current self disappears. This means that each time I build myself above my ego, above the Masach (screen), by faith above reason.
[103426]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/13, “Matan Torah (The Giving of Torah)”

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